The "perfect" shuffle is a pervasive interconnect that is used throughout switching applications. Frequently, the "perfect" shuffle is used in high level descriptions of systems, whereas a different interconnect is used in implementations because of the difficulty of implementing a perfect shuffle well using electronics. While "perfect" shuffle devices are useful architecturally, they provide a space-variant interconnect pattern that is difficult to implement optically in an efficient, compact manner. Typical approaches for optically implementing perfect shuffles include splitting, magnifying, and interleaving the resultant images using interferometers or the use birefringent crystals. In a typical micro-optic approach, individual channels are reshuffled using holographic microlenses. In the latter approach, many redirecting elements are needed (e.g., one per channel), where in the current approach few (e.g. two) redirecting elements are required.
It is an object of this invention to provide a unique approach to providing an optical perfect shuffle device.
It is another object of this invention to provide refractive, diffractive or reflective optical elements within an optical perfect shuffle device.
It is another object of this invention to provide an optical perfect shuffle device that has high efficiency and low loss.
It is another object of this invention to provide an optical perfect shuffle device that is simple and compact, and only requires that the device be placed near an image plane.